This cartoon does not make a whole lot of sense. There’s a gimmick to it intended to put Pluto in the situation they want him in, but on the whole, it’s pretty bewildering. It’s definitely one of those cartoons that’s a whole bunch of gags strung together without any logic involved. There’s basically nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re not actually putting thought into the cartoon more than it deserves. Unfortunately for all of us, that’s what we do here.

Pluto (Pinto Colvig) is a rescue dog of the imagined St. Bernard type. (More on this later.) He believes someone is in danger, but it turns out it’s a seal. He fights some with the seal, then he ends up falling through the ice and nearly drowning. There’s not much more going on to the whole thing than that.

There is no such thing as rescue dogs roaming the mountains with casks of brandy around their necks. For one thing, you wouldn’t want to give someone suffering from hypothermia alcohol, because it’s just going to make things worse. You feel warmer, but that’s because it’s sending blood to your extremities, which actually cools you off faster. I’m not sure how long people have known that, and certainly it seems as though there are plenty of people who still don’t know that. However, it wouldn’t be safe to send dogs out without human assistance for other reasons.

What’s more, where is this set? Traditionally, you get seals at sea level. And the legends of rescue dogs have them in the mountains. I suppose this could be a fjord of some sort, where you get steep slopes and sea level, but it’s all very confused. Also, if this is salt water, it is very, very cold—cold enough to be dangerous to Pluto already and cold enough to basically just kill him when he hits the water. St. Bernards, generally, are hairy dogs, and I don’t think Pluto is ever implied to be a long-haired breed.

I mean, this is one of those cartoons that I’m watching in a bit of a hurry because I need something to write about last minute. And if you’re watching it just as a silly cartoon, ignoring all the details, that’s fine. This is just the sort of thing that I dive into when I’m writing because there’s not enough else about the cartoon to sink your teeth into. It’s silly and there’s nothing really to it. Just like a lot of other Disney shorts.

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